Today’s world is filled with divisiveness and people intent on picking sides. But art has the potential to open eyes and bring us together, the power to unify communities.
Art: What Is It Good For? Community + Collaboration
Bill Knight: Don’t politicize from the pulpit
A year ago this winter, President Trump at the 2017 National Prayer Breakfast repeated his campaign promise to dismantle the Johnson Amendment, the federal law prohibiting nonprofits, including churches from getting involved in partisan electoral politics. “I will get rid…
Nature Rambles: Signs of Spring
This year, February made us remember it is still a month of winter. Frequent snowfalls and cold arctic blasts have kept the landscape in a dormant state for much of the month. As February wanes towards March, that wintery grip…
Reflections From A Baha’i: Religion must create world unity; otherwise world better without it
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stated, “I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.” Will…
Real Talk: How long do we need to wait?
I recall the words explaining why we can’t wait spoken so eloquently by Dr. Martin Luther King. I now realize how profound that one question is. I now understand King was not in a rush for change, he just couldn’t…
Serendipity: Perfectly Imperfect Marriage
He doesn’t rush into a room, sweep me off my feet and mesmerize me with endearing proclamations of his love. But neither does he complain when the dining room table is just about ready to collapse under the weight of…
West Peoria News: Garbage fee vote
Bob Streitmatter, manager of Luthy Botanical Garden, will speak at 6 p.m. March 15 at the West Peoria Resident’s Association, West Peoria City Hall. The public is invited to attend. You have the opportunity to vote March 20 on whether…
Labor Roundup: State, local government workers campaign for the best, prepare for the worst
The Supreme Court at press time was scheduled to hear arguments Feb. 26 on “Janus v AFSCME District Council 31,” the controversial lawsuit about whether employees at unionized workplaces who benefit from collective bargaining agreements must share in the costs…
Circulation Problems Plague PJS
Subscribers to Peoria’s only daily newspaper go days without newspaper delivery, are treated rudely by delivery people and in one case, a female senior citizen called her carrier after four days without a paper and the response she was given…
Arts Beat: March 2018
Music March 1: “Wood & Wire Collective” bluegrass, folk and Americana music. 6:30 p.m. Pour Bros. Craft Taproom. 670.0430. March 2: Get The Led Out, a Led Zeppelin tribute. 8 p.m. Peoria Civic Center Theater. 673-3200. March 2: Central Illinois…
Physician: Female, Minority, Immigrant, Muslim, Wife, Mother, Advocate, Role Model
Her passion is infectious – whether she is speaking at the Women’s March, at the Peoria City/County Health Department, with obstetrics residents at UnityPoint Health, with her patients or with newborn babies. For Dr. Rahmat O. Na’Allah, access to health…
Black newspapers fight for justice
February marks Black History Month, when Americans remember the heroic Crispus Attucks and George Washington Carver, daring women such as Harriett Tubman and Rosa Parks, and stalwart figures ranging from Frederick Douglass to Peoria’s own Dr. Romeo B. Garrett. Less…
Welcome to America
Reprinted with permission from The Traveler Weekly Recently, five friends and I booked a trip to Cancun through Peoria Charter Coach Tours. In all, 21 of us traveled by charter bus to O’Hare International Airport to fly to Cancun. Our…
Views & Perspectives: Immigration, infrastructure top of legislative agenda for Republicans
President Trump invited Republican leadership to Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland, to review the legislative agenda for 2018. The weekend meetings Jan. 6 and 7 included members of the President’s cabinet and staff. Following the meetings, the President…
Straight Talk: PJ Star cheap shot
Last year, I was a guest on a PJ Star podcast. One of the questions I was asked near the end of the interview was, “Why do you dislike the Journal so much?” I said that I didn’t dislike the…
Bill Knight: Agriculture seems to have become agri-vulture
The 2016 harvest ended months ago, with truckloads of grain shipped to elevators, and now – weeks before spring work is expected to start – farmers are busy fixing fences, researching effective systems and taking soil samples, meeting with seed…
Editorial: “Race” is an artificial human construct based on illusion
Based on emerging science and new genetic understanding, a black man from Jamaica can be more closely linked to a white Englishman than to a black Nigerian. That’s because skin color is not a determining biological human factor any more…
Letter: Why water maters
Our planet is in a crisis. In 2015, we saw the hottest temperatures ever recorded, and as our environment suffers, we continue to contaminate our precious water. At the present rate, many cities will be running very low on water…
Op-Ed: The Peoria City Council should vote to conduct “due diligence” of the city’s water system
BY CHERYL BUDZINSKI Chairwoman, League of Women Voters of Greater Peoria Water Action Committee The League of Women Voters of Greater Peoria believes a financial analysis that could lead to public ownership of a water utility is warranted. Our LWVGP…
Inland Art: Sarah Smelser
I met Sarah Smelser nearly 20 years ago when she was hired to be the new head of West Virginia University’s print program. She arrived from Pasadena, California, with her husband Jonathan Higgins, and they settled in quickly and founded…